Definitions for curtainˈkɜr tn

Random House Webster's College Dictionary

cur•tainˈkɜr tn(n.)

a hanging piece of fabric used to shut out the light from a window, adorn a room, increase privacy, etc.
Category: Furniture
a movable or folding screen used for similar purposes.
Category: Furniture
a movable drapery that hangs directly behind a proscenium arch and conceals the stage from the audience. the start or end of a performance, scene, act, or play, esp. the time at which a performance begins. an effect, line, or plot solution at the conclusion of a performance. (used as a direction in a script to indicate the end of a scene or act.)
Category: Showbiz
anything that shuts off, covers, or conceals:
a curtain of artillery fire.
Category: Architecture
Ref: curtain wall.
the part of a wall or rampart connecting two bastions or towers.
Category: Fortification, Architecture
curtains,Slang. the end; death, esp. by violence.
Category: Status (usage)
(v.t.)to provide, shut off, conceal, or adorn with or as if with a curtain.

Idioms for curtain:

draw the curtain on or over, to bring to a close. to keep secret.
Category: Idiom
lift the curtain on, to start. to make known or public; disclose.
Category: Idiom

Origin of curtain:

1250–1300; ME co(u)rtine < OF < LL cortīna, prob. = L co(ho)rt-, s. of cohors (see court ) +-īna -ine1, as calque of Gk aulaía curtain, der. of aulḗ courtyard

Princeton's WordNet

curtain, drape, drapery, mantle, pall(noun)
hanging cloth used as a blind (especially for a window)
curtain(verb)
any barrier to communication or vision
"a curtain of secrecy"; "a curtain of trees"
curtain(verb)
provide with drapery
"curtain the bedrooms"

Kernerman English Learner's Dictionary

curtain(noun)ˈkɜr tn
a cloth for covering a window or opening
to close the curtains; a shower curtain

Wiktionary

curtain(Noun)
A piece of cloth covering a window to keep the sun from shining inside.
curtain(Noun)
A similar piece of cloth that separates the audience and the stage in a theater.
curtain(Noun)
The flat area of wall which connects two bastions or towers; the main area of a fortified wall.
curtain(Noun)
death
curtain(Verb)
To cover (a window) with a curtain; to hang curtains.

Origin: From cortine, from cortina.

Webster Dictionary

Curtain(noun)
a hanging screen intended to darken or conceal, and admitting of being drawn back or up, and reclosed at pleasure; esp., drapery of cloth or lace hanging round a bed or at a window; in theaters, and like places, a movable screen for concealing the stage
Curtain(noun)
that part of the rampart and parapet which is between two bastions or two gates. See Illustrations of Ravelin and Bastion
Curtain(noun)
that part of a wall of a building which is between two pavilions, towers, etc
Curtain(noun)
a flag; an ensign; -- in contempt
Curtain(verb)
to inclose as with curtains; to furnish with curtains